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I have been following Crimson Desert since its first reveal. When that giant cobra erupted from the water in the debut trailer, jaw on the floor does not begin to cover it. I have tracked this game with genuine passion ever since, and anyone who has followed AltChar's Crimson Desert coverage over the years will know just how much anticipation has been building. So believe me when I say this is not coming from a place of cynicism. This is coming from someone who wanted Crimson Desert to be absolutely brilliant.
However, ten hours in, I am still waiting.
The "It Gets Good Later" Problem
People enjoying Crimson Desert have been pretty vocal about one thing, and I am not buying it. Give it time, they say, posting one of those man digging for diamonds, never give up meme. Ten hours, maybe twenty, and then it clicks. Then it becomes the game it was always meant to be.
I respectfully disagree. That is not how great open-world games work, and we should stop normalising it.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt did not take twenty hours to justify your attention. Elden Ring grabbed you the moment you saw Limgrave for the first time and never let go. Red Dead Redemption 2, even with its famously slow and snowy tutorial section that divides opinion, was interesting from the first moment you were in control. Skyrim was addictive within minutes. Assassin's Creed: Odyssey had that genius exploration/combat loop working on you almost immediately. These are some of the finest open-world games ever made, and not one of them asked for your patience before delivering on their promise. The hook was there. You felt it. You kept playing.
A game that needs twenty hours of runway before it becomes enjoyable is not a slow burn. It is a game with a serious problem. A problem many gamers don't have the time for.
A Beautiful World That Desperately Needs Good Stories
Here is what Crimson Desert does brilliantly: it looks extraordinary. The world Pearl Abyss has built is a genuine graphical showcase, reminiscent of RDR 2, and there are moments where you stop moving just to take it in. That is real craft.
But a gorgeous backdrop is not the same as a living world, and this is where Crimson Desert is struggling badly. The characters I have encountered are dull. The stories within this world have not left any impression on me. The narrative is, at this point, barely present in any meaningful sense.
I have spent the better part of ten hours on quests that amount to lost sheep, missing cows, and bandits causing generic trouble. The one exception was the Reed Devil quest, which finally offered some actual background and context, and notably, it was the most engaged I felt in the entire time I have played. I sincerely hope there's more of that soon.
I will also not entertain the argument that the story does not matter because Crimson Desert is a sandbox. This is a premium AAA release that spent years promising a grand adventure. Adventures require stories worth caring about. The world Pearl Abyss has built deserves characters and narrative to match its visual ambition. Right now, it does not have them, and for an open-world game, that is not a minor issue. No amount of crazy things and over-the-top mechanics will make up for that lack of great, epic story moments.
Combat with Potential, but still not clicking
The combat is getting a lot of praise, and I understand why. The variety of combos, weapons and skills on offer is impressive on paper and sometimes in action too. There is a seriously ambitious system here with genuine depth.
The problem is how it feels to actually play. For my taste, it is floaty and chaotic in a way that rarely gives you the sense that you are truly in command of your character. That feeling of precise, intentional control - the kind Elden Ring delivers in almost every encounter - is absent. Bosses have so far felt like gimmicks rather than proper tests. The Reed Devil is behind me now, and while it had spectacle, I could not tell you what that fight was actually asking of me strategically.
There was no clear lesson, no satisfying moment of reading a pattern and executing. I could tell you a viable strategy for every Dark Souls 3, Elden Ring and Lies of P boss, I could talk to you what every single one of these asks of you. In Crimson Desert, I didn't get a clear sense of that.
I genuinely hope that changes. There is potential in there somewhere.
The Fishing Is Great, Though
This is not entirely me being negative. The most consistently enjoyable activity I have found in Crimson Desert across ten hours is fishing. It is a shallow mechanic compared to RDR 2's wonderfully detailed fishing system, but it is satisfying in the way that only a well-tuned idle activity can be. I suspect it will not hold my attention indefinitely, but right now, standing at the water's edge with a line out is among the more peaceful pleasures the game offers.
Make of that what you will.
The Wait Goes On
Crimson Desert trailer's emphasised players taking control of dragons, mechs and whatnot. I'll admit, riding a dragon while unleashing a fury of fire onto poor bandits sounds spectacular. Piloting a giant mech and slamming everything and everyone in your path sounds like the kind of content that could genuinely redeem a rough opening stretch. I am eager to experience those things.
What I am less eager to do is grind through another twenty to thirty hours of this before the game gives me access to that content, which supposedly makes it a blast. Not when the best open world games in history did not ask that of me. Not when I was this invested from the very first trailer.
Crimson Desert may yet surprise me. I hope it does. But based on everything so far, it is a long way short of the greatest open-world games on the market, and the passage of time alone is not going to fix that.
